Wessex Archaeology have produced an excellent film, available on their YouTube channel, which looks at the landscape, how it was used by Neolithic people and the wider context which led to the building of Stonehenge.

The film includes stunning footage of this iconic landscape and includes interviews with experts explaining the importance of viewing the wider context of Neolithic monuments, like Stonehenge.

A well known face readers will know from the Time Team TV show, Dr Phil Harding, explains about his dig at Bulford Hill: ‘One of those sites that make you glad to be an archaeologist’. We hear from Phil about the finds, including a burial, and of the pottery. This is where a link comes in with Orkney.

We hear more in the film about the Amesbury Archer and you can view a separate film about that: The Amesbury Archer : 20 Years On

On May 3rd 2002, archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology found the grave of a man dating back to around 2,300BC, the Early Bronze Age in Britain, at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. The grave lay three miles south-east of Stonehenge.

Wessex Archaeology

Dr Phil Harding’s enthusiasm is infectious. But he’s also a great communicator at explaining to those of us who are not experts, how the connections existed between peoples in the Neolithic and that crucial transition into the Bronze Age.

All of those being interviewed are interesting to listen to even if you have no knowledge of the subject matter at all.

Highly recommended : ‘Beyond the Stones’ : 35th Anniversary of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site

You may also like:

• The Complex & Ever-Changing Use of the Wider Stonehenge Landscape
• Winter Feasting at Durrington Walls: It’s All In Neolithic Poo
• From Israel To Stonehenge, via Brodgar?

Fiona Grahame